Electrical Upgrades

After reading this article from James at TheFitRV, I decided to move adding solar until later in the project and wire up a battery isolater to charge the house battery from the main vehicle battery.

While we had ordered our ProMaster with the “Auxilary Power Connector” option, it appears it is on the passenger side B pillar which is not terribly useful with the slider door on the passenger side. I can only assume it’s more useful on the Fiat Ducato models with the driver on right side layout? So I, like other folks, found it easier to run a feed from the vehicle battery under the drivers floorboard, down the left side inside the kitchen galley cabinet to my house battery below the drivers side bed. I was able to connect to the vehicle using the 70 AMP fuse link used for the “Auxilary Power Connector” option!

To charge the house battery when the vehicle is running, I used a Wirth Co 75 AMP Battery Doctor “Smart Isolator".

Also added a Victron BMV-700 Battery Monitor as we will be installing a Nova Kool R3800DC refrigerator next. The refrigerator uses more power, compared to our LED house lights, that will require monitoring the state of charge to maintain a sufficient charge in the house battery to allow the Nova Kool to run. I understand the Nova Kool refrigerators automatically shutdown if the house battery reaches a specific discharge level to protect a deep discharge of the house battery that could shorten the life span of the house battery. I think the cutoff voltage was 11.5, but I would need to verify that!